The Toltec Nagual – The Recapitulation

Recapitulation is a core Toltec technique used to heal emotional charges. On a deeper level, it is used to reclaim energy and return it to self. Recapitulation was first introduced into mass consciousness by Carlos Castaneda in his book, The Eagles Gift, published in 1982. However, its roots go deeper. In his book, The Toltec Path of Recapitulation: Healing Your Past to Free Your Soul, Victor Sanchez speaks about learning procedures from the Wirrarika people (native to Mexico), who he calls the ‘surviving Toltecs’, similar to the process of recapitulation. I studied with Mother Sarita, don Miguel Ruiz’s mother who was in her 80′s at the time, who spoke about recapitulation like processes with don Miguel’s grandfather.

One purpose of recapitulation is to eliminate emotional charges. Emotional charges cause one to misperceive the world around them and make it impossible to perceive the Nagual with clarity. For example, if a young girl is relentlessly teased about her curly hair by her father, she may become emotionally charged. Later, when she is a adult, whenever someone compliments her, particularly her hair, she becomes angry. She may not know why compliments cause her to get angry as she doesn’t remember how her father used to tease her as a young child. What is worse is that she misperceives another person’s good intent, i.e. giving her a compliment, as teasing her about her looks. This misperception causes upset both in her life and other people in it.

The average person is full of emotional charges, many that they are not aware of as they were suppressed as painful memories during childhood. This causes the average person to misperceive the world and the people in it. Systematic recapitulation decharges emotions and frees one up to perceive the world clearly. Recapitulation releases negative emotions that are trapped in one’s subconscious freeing up their life. Many people have a habitually negative emotional state, or are moody for reasons they do not know why. More times than not, the reason lies in the suppressed emotional charges that lie in their subconscious.

On a deeper level, recapitulation is used to reclaim one’s energy. Everywhere one has lived they leave an energetic piece of themselves. In every person you interact with you live energetic cords or filaments that, unless reclaimed back to self drain you of your vital energy. This is particularly true of sexual encounters. Through the consistent use of recapitulation you restore the vital energy necessary to progress on a spiritual path. Most do not realize how much energy is required to break free of the Dream of the Planet. You need every ounce of energy you have. This is why Toltecs place so much importance on the Recapitulation.